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Self Driving Car from Audi Among News at CES 2011

Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler’s keynote address at CES 2011 brought news of a self driving car plus other technological advancements that show the German car maker taking broad new steps in the marketplace.

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The self-driving car could become reality thanks to Audi’s Car-2-X communication, which Audi says harbors significant potential for enhancing safety and reducing fuel consumption. The participating vehicles can alert each other to congestion, breakdowns and weather events such as packed snow. Findings relating to the traffic flow can promote an energy-efficient driving style.

The benefit of Car-2-X communications could be a self-driving car. Audi says with future Car-2-X modules and additional cameras, the vehicle will then be able to drive itself whenever the driver wants it to do so, for instance in congestion or in stop-and-go traffic. Of course that doesn’t mean the driver becomes disconnected. The car, if built, would allow the driver to take over at any time.

Other highlights include:

Next year, Audi will become the first car manufacturer to use NVIDIA’s Tegra processor. Unveiled at the CES 2010 initially for the consumer electronics sector, the chip from the Santa Clara manufacturer is now the world’s most advanced mobile processor. Conceived as a multi-core processor, it generates extremely high-resolution graphics with breathtaking speed. And it accelerates the reproduction of many audio and video formats such as mp3 audio and mpeg4 video that dominate the modern mobile entertainment world. Yet the Tegra chip consumes significantly less energy than previous multimedia processors

Audi has also carved out a significant lead over its competitors by providing unrestricted, fast internet access. Passengers in the A8 and A8 L can surf and email to their heart’s content while on the road, and the driver can use a large number of online services safely while driving, such as those provided by the venture partner Google.

The Audi A1 e-tron is an electric car with a range extender – it is powered purely by electric motor. Audi has created this four-seater specifically for transport in the world’s rapidly growing megacities.

The electric motor, installed transversely at the front, supplies a continuous output of 61 hp and a peak output of 102 hp, transmitted to the front wheels via a single-stage transmission. The peak torque of 177 lb-ft is available right from the off. The A1 e-tron sprints from 0 to 100 km/h (62.14 mph) in 10.2 seconds and on to a top speed of more than 80 mph. It draws its energy from a package of lithium-ion batteries arranged in a T pattern beneath the center tunnel and rear bench seat.

The head-up display is a new, high-end feature that Audi makes available as an option in the A7 Sportback and the new A6. It projects the most important data onto the windshield as symbols and digits. The display takes the form of a virtual image inside a window, the “eyebox”, measuring 10.31 x 3.43 inches. It appears to hover above the engine compartment lid, about 7.55 ft in front of the driver, directly in their primary field of vision.

Audi is already planning the next development in head-up display technology – the “high-fidelity head-up display”. This makes it possible to seemingly position the displays in the real environment. A navigation arrow, for instance, is no longer perceived as being at a fixed distance over the front lid; it is now directly at the junction that it is indicating. The arrow increases in size as the car approaches the junction. It remains over the junction, appearing to come nearer to the driver.